Dying star, dancing galaxies, stellar nurseries captured by NASA’s new telescope

NASA on Tuesday unveiled a new batch of images from its powerful new space telescope, including a foamy blue and orange shot of a dying star.

The first image from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was released Monday at the White House — a jumble of distant galaxies that went deeper into the cosmos than humanity has ever seen.

The four additional photos released Tuesday included more cosmic beauty shots.

With one exception, the latest images showed parts of the universe seen by other telescopes. But Webb’s sheer power, distant location 1 million miles off Earth and use of the infrared light spectrum showed them in a new light.

“Every image is a new discovery and each will give humanity a view of the universe that we’ve never seen before,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday, rhapsodizing over images showing “the formation of stars, devouring black holes.”

Webb’s use of the infrared light spectrum allows the telescope to see through the cosmic dust and see “faraway light from the corners of the universe,” he said.

This image released by NASA on July 12, 2022, combined the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope’s two cameras to create a never-before-seen view of a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI via AP)

“We’ve really changed the understanding of our universe,” said European Space Agency director general Josef Aschbacher.

The European and Canadian space agencies joined NASA in building the powerful telescope.

The images released Tuesday include one of the Southern Ring Nebula, which is sometimes called “eight-burst.” About 2,500 light-years away, it shows an expanding cloud of gas surrounding a dying star. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Also shown is an image of Carina Nebula, one of the bright stellar nurseries in the sky, about 7,600 light-years away.

This combo of images provided by NASA on July 12, 2022, shows a side-by-side comparison of observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from the Webb Telescope. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP)

Five galaxies in a cosmic dance, 290 million light-years away, were also shown in the new batch of images. Stephan’s Quintet was first seen 225 years ago in the constellation Pegasus.

In addition, a blueish giant planet called WASP-96b was revealed. It’s about the size of Saturn and is 1,150 light-years away. A gas planet, it’s not a candidate for life elsewhere but a key target for astronomers.

This image provided by NASA on July 12, 2022, shows Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies captured by the Webb Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP)

The images were released one by one at an event at NASA’s Goddard Space Center that included cheerleaders with pompoms the color of the telescope’s golden mirrors.

The world’s biggest and most powerful space telescope rocketed away last December from French Guiana in South America. It reached its lookout point 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth in January. Then the lengthy process began to align the mirrors, get the infrared detectors cold enough to operate and calibrate the science instruments, all protected by a sunshade the size of a tennis court that keeps the telescope cool.

Webb is considered the successor to the highly successful, but aging Hubble Space Telescope.